Monday, March 31, 2008

Yahoo! Launched New Website ''Shine'' To Help Women

Yahoo! Inc. today announced the launch of Yahoo! Shine, a new website for women that aims to provide the information most relevant to their daily lives. The site offers nine categories ranging from Fashion & Beauty to Parenting, and will feature content from many of the most popular lifestyles publishers, including Conde Nast Publications and Hearst Corporation. Additionally, a new editorial team will develop original stories on a daily basis, and hand pick the best user blog posts to feature prominently on the site. Yahoo! Shine creates a single destination for the approximately 40 million women between the ages of 25 and 54 who already come to Yahoo! each month, making Yahoo! a more relevant starting point for this audience.

The new site will help create a better experience for women on Yahoo!, while providing Yahoo! advertisers with a single lifestyles destination to reach this coveted demographic. Yahoo! Shine brings together the resources of several existing Yahoo! sites, including Yahoo! Food and Yahoo! Astrology, and will incorporate content from Yahoo! Health. Bringing these resources together is an example of Yahoo! Media's focus on building larger category sites for mass audiences, rather than focusing on niche topics and smaller audiences.

"We're executing on Yahoo!'s starting point strategy by ensuring that women who start their day with Yahoo! are offered a more relevant experience," said Scott Moore, senior vice president and head of Yahoo! Media. "Yahoo! Shine adds an important piece to our Media portfolio, which already includes sites that are number one in the News, Sports, Finance and Entertainment categories."

Editorial Model

Lifestyles publishing veteran Brandon Holley serves as Yahoo! Shine's editor-in-chief, overseeing a team of seasoned editors who each bring a unique point-of-view to their topic. The editors join Yahoo! from many of the leading print and online lifestyles outlets, including Lucky magazine, The Wall Street Journal's Career Journal, and BluePrint magazine. Editors will program content in nine categories daily by featuring partner content, stories from a women's blog network, and developing original stories. Yahoo! Shine's nine categories are:

Fashion & Beauty

Parenting

Food

At Home

Healthy Living

Entertainment & Culture

Work & Money

Astrology

Love and Relationships

"You can count on us to bring attitude and personality, and find humor in almost every topic we cover, whether it's a post on men who wear skinny jeans, how you can get back into your skinny jeans, or whether you'll be taken seriously if you wear jeans to work," Holley said. "Yahoo! Shine speaks to you as a friend, telling you the secrets and tips to simplify your life."

Yahoo! Shine offers a blog platform for all users to share their thoughts and discoveries in a trusted environment. Editors will handpick entries from these blogs to feature alongside the partner and editorial content.

Like Yahoo!'s other category-leading media properties, Yahoo! Shine has partnered with the top content providers in its category. Yahoo! Shine's partners will create original content and feature choice magazine content. Partners include:

"Yahoo! is an ideal partner for us because they are pioneering a unique way to present content online," said Christopher Johnson, vice president, content and business development, Hearst Magazines Digital Media. "With more than 130 million visitors each month to Yahoo! in the U.S., Yahoo! will become a giant megaphone for us and allow Hearst's network of bloggers to elevate their voices and be heard by a much larger audience. Increasing the visibility of our blog content is a key element in driving additional traffic and converting passive readers into loyal fans."

"We're delighted that Yahoo! has turned to so many of our magazines and websites for content for its new women's website," said Rick Levine, vice president, editorial operations, Conde Nast Publications. "By speaking to Yahoo!'s huge audience, this partnership will give our great editorial properties a significant growth opportunity."

Building on Yahoo!'s Advertising Leadership

The female (age 25-54) audience, which Yahoo! has designated as "Chief Household Officers," is a highly sought-after demographic for advertisers. It is made up of heavy Internet users, who are frequently the household purchasing decision-makers. Yahoo! Shine creates an opportunity for advertisers to reach this audience in an environment that is relevant and meaningful to women, and several advertisers have signed up to participate at launch. Yahoo! believes the site will be especially attractive to advertisers in the consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals and retail categories, where combined online advertising spend is expected to exceed $1.8 billion in 2008, based on competitive spending analysis done by TNS Media Intelligence.